MSCD’s
leadership believes that non-Coloradans don’t know the location of the
university because it’s more commonly known as Metro State College (“Which
metro area?!”).

Apparently,
people who are unfamiliar with MSCD tend to think that the “College” in
MSCD’s name suggests that it may be a two-year college, which it is NOT.

It is
important to retain the word “State” in the university’s name to reflect
the affordability of tuition.

Hence the leaders of MSCD have decided to play with the
words “Denver,”
“State” and “University”.

*

Theoretically, there are only six permutations of names one
can come up with if the words in the phrase can’t be repeated. (For you nerds
out there, it’s “3 x 2 x 1 = 6.”)

Even though six permutations of the name exist
theoretically, some of them won’t make sense. Here are the six:

DenverStateUniversity

DenverUniversityState
(x)

StateUniversityDenver

StateDenverUniversity
(x)

UniversityDenverState
(x)

UniversityStateDenver (x)

Of the six, #1 has been struck down because of opposition by
the University of
Denver. Permutation #2
doesn’t make sense grammatically, even if one adds prepositions such as “at” or
“of” (which are common among institutes of higher education) to the name.

Permutation #3 will work with the use of “at” or “of” in the
name (i.e. State University of Denver; StateUniversity at Denver),
but there’s no guarantee that the University
of Denver will not raise
a ruckus again.

Permutation #4 works grammatically with the use of the
preposition “of” in the name (i.e. State of Denver University), but it won’t
make sense because Denver
is a city, not a state. Permutations #5 and #6 simply don’t make sense any way
one looks at it.

If one throws “Colorado”
into the mix, one can substantially increase the number of permutations, thus
increasing the number of choices of names. With four words (i.e. Colorado, Denver,
State, and University), one can theoretically come up with 24 possible new
names for MSCD. (Again, for the nerds, it is “4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 24.”)

ColoradoDenverStateUniversity*

ColoradoDenverUniversityState (x)

ColoradoStateDenverUniversity (x)

ColoradoStateUniversityDenver (x)

ColoradoUniversityDenverState (x)

ColoradoUniversityStateDenver (x)

DenverColoradoStateUniversity*

DenverColoradoUniversityState (x)

DenverUniversityColoradoState (x)

Denver University StateColorado (x)

DenverStateColoradoUniversity (x)

Denver State UniversityColorado (x)

StateColoradoDenverUniversity (x)

StateColoradoUniversityDenver (x)

StateDenverColoradoUniversity (x)

State Denver UniversityColorado (x)

State UniversityColoradoDenver*

StateUniversityDenverColorado*

UniversityColoradoDenverState (x)

UniversityColoradoStateDenver (x)

UniversityDenverColoradoState (x)

University Denver StateColorado (x)

University StateColoradoDenver (x)

UniversityStateDenverColorado (x)

Among the 24 permutations, only four are useable. Again, #1 ("Colorado Denver State University") may face opposition by the University
of Denver because it’s not too
different from the DenverStateUniversity
name that they so vehemently oppose. Permutation #7 (“DenverColoradoStateUniversity”) works but ColoradoStateUniversity in Fort Collins may oppose it.

Permutation #17 works as “State University of Colorado at Denver,” similar to how the State University of New York (SUNY)
system names its campuses. However, it may face opposition from the University
Of Colorado at Denver. Permutation #18 works as the “StateUniversity at Denver, Colorado,”
but almost no one names universities that way.

So we’re back to square one.

*

What is wrong with the name “University
of CentralColorado,” which they
have previously thought of, as mentioned in the Denver Post article in April?
Isn’t it obvious that there is some publicity stunt involved here, especially
since MSCD backed down so easily after the University of Denver
objected?

MSCD’s leaders seem to think that leaving the “Metropolitan”
in the institution’s name will give the University of Denver
less reason to object to their new name. That begs the question: So why not “Denver-AuroraStateUniversity”,
since the metropolitan area is formally known as the Denver-Aurora-Boulder is
the official name of the metropolitan area as given by the United States Census
Bureau?

While MSCD is at it, they may as well ruffle the feathers of
other better ranked universities to milk more publicity by suggesting a name
change similar to them:

ColoradoStateUniversity at Denver

DenverColoradoStateUniversity

StateUniversity
of Denver

ColoradoDenverStateUniversity

The first two “options” will invoke protests from Colorado
State University (“There is only one CSU and it is in Fort Collins!!!”) and the
last two will provoke objections from the University of Denver once again
(“Still too similar to Denver State University!!!!”).

*

Even though the renaming of MSCD gives the institution a
rare chance to be mentioned in the mainstream media, I suggest not getting the
name change over and done with quickly though, for the following reasons:

Name
changes are expensive. The Qwest-Century Link merger earlier this year cost millions in
the changing of signs alone. Of course, Century Link serves a much bigger
region and has more assets, but it will still be a costly exercise for
MSCD regardless.

Brand-building
takes time. The sooner it starts, the better.

Changing
of the university’s name affects many stakeholders. Potential students may
not want to go to a “new” school whose name is not known; current students
may not want to graduate from a “new” school whose name is not known among
potential employers; employees have to be deployed to consult the
different stakeholders on what they think of the proposed new names;
published and printed materials (shirts, banners, letterheads, corporate
gifts etc) will immediately become obsolete, so offices and departments
may not order large quantities at once and take advantage of large-order
discount; email addresses will change, causing students, professors and
other employees to lose opportunities etc. All these are troublesome, and
may take a toll on students’ and employees’ morale.

When MSCD is done with its publicity stunt, may I suggest
the following choices for its new name: